Ice on the puddles on the on-road paths today. Only getting my standard-ish one hour ride in before work, and the legs started to run out of puff at about 2/3'rd distance... but I'd gone to bed hungry so I wasn't surprised.

Been quite a while since i weighed in... bit disappointed as my clothes are falling off my hips but weight hasn't moved much in the last two months.At least my profile is improving for TT's!. Still think I can lose another 7 or so kgs but my wife says I am looking a bit gaunt already... but still have a small tummy going on!. Not going to be where I wanted for the end of the month weight wise but will have to make do... got to look at the big picture though!.Aiming to prove that "anyone can make it to A grade" thread right .

Going to do some test on climbs later in the month... that will tell me the truth whether I like it or not!... if I can take 40 secs off this climb by June next year I will be very happy http://app.strava.com/segments/709036 ... the young kiwi with the KOM is racing with the pro's so I won't ever get there!.

jules21 wrote:good luck TLL. did 250km or riding this weekend and am very much in the doghouse.

It has got me buggered how some people can get away with the mileage they are doing and hence time on the bike.Must be single or have a very understanding partner.I am very much limited by allowable time away from home.

Not single... 17th wedding anniversary today and she has no problems with me going to do a race this arvy... As long as I cook a laksa for dinner . Even took my bike on holidays for the last 10 days... Just got up at 6.30 and had up to 3 hours every morning and when I got back she had her free time while I took the kids to the beach. When the kids were little the riding suffered a fair bit... But as I look after the kids more than most Dad's I have no guilt escaping for a couple of hours.

Training... After Friday mornings blast I drove 900kms back home... Legs didn't feel to bad compared to the drive down but I was shattered all of Saturday... So an 80km race today should be interesting... If I have no team mates I will do a one hour effort off the front and try and destroy the group... It is a very selective course and will be warm ( I raced there last 3 years ago and did an NP of 380 for 1 hour and 350 for 2 hours! )... So be interested to see if I find it easier this time!...if I have team mates there I will bury myself for them .

toolonglegs wrote:Not single... 17th wedding anniversary today and she has no problems with me going to do a race this arvy... As long as I cook a laksa for dinner . Even took my bike on holidays for the last 10 days... Just got up at 6.30 and had up to 3 hours every morning and when I got back she had her free time while I took the kids to the beach. When the kids were little the riding suffered a fair bit... But as I look after the kids more than most Dad's I have no guilt escaping for a couple of hours.

After a training race on Sunday of 80km's my legs felt OK...but school holidays duties means little time yesterday so i sneaked out for a quickie last night and threw in two 10 km efforts on pretty flat ground at 39 & 39.5 kmph avs... the 2nd one was a hell of a lot harder for little speed gains. But I didn't want to go all out.So only 45k all up.Probably time I found a coach again as I will admit I am not too sure how to structure my training for TT's on the 26/8 and 2/9... and all going well the 30/9 as well.But probably too late for the first two now anyway. Don't feel like I have any sort of peak coming on... probably due to all the shepherding of clients during July, not a month where I needed a pile of slow km's!. Probably need to get a powermeter again first .

Slow day for me. TSB hit -22, so I thought I should have a rest. And my left VMO was sore when I got up this morning.

I've also completely changed the setup of the race bike since last Saturday, saddle gone forwards about 3cm, and it feels bloody awesome... although Steve Hogg will probably have a go at me next time he looks at my bike! This is pretty much back to the setup I was running prior to changing bars etc. before Christmas when I did the fitting basic again in terms of balance and weight on hands... but with weight off the hands it kills my back if I try and make power. Not sure how I managed to complete like this in the early part of the year, 'cause it really hurt on Saturday for the race. The bad part is that I didn't have a spare straight seatpost, so ended up reversing the slightly-setback Thompson Elite I have in there... looks weird, but gets the saddle in the correct spot. Same method I used on the Ribble frame for TT work.

Last edited by twizzle on Tue Aug 14, 2012 7:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

after two weeks of watching the Olympics, im back on the bike today.we started with a new trainer today and we got smashed i loved it, and i hope when i load onto strava soon that i have a couple pb's!!

I've been doing bugger all riding lately (100-150 per week) and mostly 30-40 kms with no efforts/speed/hills.Trying to train both legs to pedal properly and develop good technique. Getting somewhere but very slowly.

Did a 70km fondo on weekend for fun!? 500 metres of climbing, averaged 29kph solo out into stiff head/crosswind and 28 kph back into strong headwind. Never have figured how that works.

Doesn't get cold up here.......took 25kms for my legs to warm up so I could push without pain and 60kms before the arm warmers came down.Glad I didn't do the road race as it was minus 1/2 degree at the start. A couple of garmins had ice on the screens; I guess about minus 3 or 4 degrees when riding.

42 klicks on Saturday. Start point Mt Pleasant, out to Birdwood, back to Springton and stop point the Totness Inn Hotel, mt pleasant.A bit of fun, crikey it was cold for a daytime ride, Garmin800 telling me 8 degree's in places.

Good to see this thread is getting some action again!.Last 2 days have consisted of a rather hard training race yesterday which while only 65kms long was a good work out .Today I meet up with a mate for a chat for about 45 minutes, I was huffing and puffing a bit as I was trying to talk!. Then said goodbye and made my way home via my favorite 10km strava segment... Managed a 41.1av for 10kms which was probably a bit harder than I wanted to go, to be honest the last 5kms were at 100%... So was a bit disappointed not to beat my best time but as there wasn't much wind assist compared to my best time. I was hoping to be doing this segment closer to 44-45 by now but even kitted out and with fresh legs I don't think it is in me yet!.Maybe next year.

Slowly building up again, I'll race tomorrow if the weather isn't too crap (9C predicted!), but the TSB is hovering around -18 at the moment, so I'm not expecting anything good - It's going to be a 'training' ride.

Interestingly... I felt pretty strong on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday, but the Thursday ride was garbage, and today wasn't great either... but looking at the performance manager and fiddling with the ATL constant, I still can't understand why the legs suddely feel tired. I'm certainly not putting out the number I was last week, but I was a lot fresher then.

twizzle wrote:...I still can't understand why the legs suddely feel tired. I'm certainly not putting out the number I was last week, but I was a lot fresher then.

That's entirely normal, when training we should include a low week in the planning. Figure that about 1 week of every month, intensity and duration of training should be decreased. It's much the same as over the week, we might train daily like this:

hard. easy. medium. rest. hard, medium, easy, rest. for example.

So too the weeks themselves need to have a flow of hard, medium and easy weeks... otherwise, yep we are forced into a low performance week.

I understand periodisation, I just don't understand why the "form" went down the tubes overnight when the performance model says the I wasn't overdoing it. I've been slack, I need to find my "what if" spreadsheet for planning rides/rest and predicting ATL/CTL impacts.

With the high temps we are having at the moment I decided to skip racing today... plus without team mates it is a bit pointless and none were going.So went over to check out the TT course for next Sunday... much harder than I thought. Starts with a long climb where the speeds fluctuate between 35-40kmph... then similar sloping downhill before two rollers on dead roads, if I can keep 32kmph over the first and 36 over the 2nd I will be happy... then flat / downhill before another draggy 400m climb were 32 would be good for me. Did a fast lap where I thought I averaged 39.5 then had a slow lap and did 2 steady laps just aiming for 35av. But Strava has my final lap as the KOM so I obviously stuffed up the start line. Either way I got a good look at the course over 8 or 9 laps.The top guys can average 44-45kmph. If I can do 40 av I will be very happy... not sure I have it in me. Need to have lost that last 5 kilos to keep a higher speed on the climbs.Hopefully I can find a skin suit this week from one of my clubmates... and maybe a disc rear... add on aero helmet / shoe covers and 80mm front and fingers crossed it gives me an extra 1kmph average!... hopefully nearly fresh legs gives me the rest!.PS... biggest drama... no where to put my phone in a skinsuit... will have to borrow someones Garmin for Strava .

Did a 50km ride in the local hills yesterday with a mate. I would normally try and chase him down even though he is a lot lighter than me but yesterday I let him get on with it. The heat and training has taken its toll... Hopefully perfect timing for a low volume high intensity week to freshen up. Going to be 38/40 c today, so good day to do very little .

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